A novel method for equipment sensitivity study during power quality events

This paper presents a new simulation method for performing an equipment sensitivity study during power quality events. Power quality waveform events such as voltage sags, swells, transients, etc. may cause sensitive loads to trip or mis-operate. For better coordination between the system and the equipment, it is necessary that the effects of specific events on the equipment behavior be thoroughly evaluated. This paper serves such a purpose. A library has been designed for generating various types of event waveforms. By imposing these waveforms on the equipment and tuning various waveform features, the equipment behavior can be correlated to specific event parameters. Methods and case studies as well as software implementation issues in the MATLAB environment are illustrated. It is concluded that the proposed approach is flexible and feasible for practical applications.